Life in lockdown

Cruel and unusual punishment

“Self-respect and a sense of self-worth is the innermost armament of the soul. It lies at the heart of our attempts to maintain our humanness. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food and oxygen. Inside prison, degradation is as lethal as a bullet.” Ivan Kilgore, California State Prison

I had a conversation the other day with a friend who was incarcerated for 25 years before being released a year ago. I asked if he thought he could endure the experience again, after tasting the sweet nectar of freedom. His response shook me to my core. Although being released from prison allowed him to regain his freedom, he explained that more importantly, it gave him back his humanity. He could “never” survive imprisonment again, he said.

I understand: When you are incarcerated in a nonproductive, volatile environment and treated inhumanely, you become desensitized over time to things you’d otherwise never be able to endure. It’s a defense mechanism that enables you to survive. You see, to survive in prison, you first must learn to endure mentally. And a big part of that process occurs unconsciously, as you normalize the abnormal — until your humanity is gone and you are, essentially, nothing more than an animal. At that point, you no longer think twice about stripping naked in front of another man, bending over and spreading your…